welcome guide for the leading edge staff team 20191) staff tennis, football, badminton, golf or yoga...

LEADING EDGE ACADEMIES PARTNERSHIP 1

Welcome Guide for the

Leading Edge Staff Team 2019

You have just become a member of staff in the Leading

Edge Multi-Academy Trust and this guide will aim to

answer some questions about what this means for you as

an employee and give you some essential information

about your part in the new organisation.


Our Story The Leading Edge Partnership is a democratic and values

based Trust that was originally set up by the leaders of four

Academies, who agreed to work together as equal partners

to create a new organisation to formalise the partnership

work that already existed as part of the Applied Minds

Teaching School.

The Founder Schools are Mounts Bay Academy, Five Islands

Academy, St Hilary School and Ludgvan School. These

schools created the vision, mission, values and ethos of the

Trust.

Leading Edge was recently invited by the DFE

to work with Fowey River Academy, who joins

us as the fifth member of the Partnership on

1st May 2019. The leaders and Trustees are

delighted to welcome Fowey River Academy

as an excellent addition to the Partnership.

There are strong links already with Leading Edge staff who

have shared expertise over the last four years. They become

an equal partner school and will be helping to set up the MAT

presence and Teaching School in Mid Cornwall, working with


their own partner primary schools to develop a strong 3-16

educational model of future learning.

Our Teaching

School The formation of the

new MAT has shaped our

thinking about the Applied

Minds Teaching School

Alliance and we as a group

of leaders have decided to

rename the Teaching School to fit in with the new direction of


travel. It will now be called the ‘Leading Edge Teaching

School’, which will be open to all partner schools and any

other schools in Cornwall or beyond, who want to learn about

the latest thinking and research in education, nationally and

internationally that we intend to share in the new Teaching

School.

“Sharing knowledge across the system for the

benefit of all schools in Cornwall and beyond and

increasing the excellence and equity in all schools in

the Leading Edge Teaching School”.

Our Vision Developing the Academies within the Trust as centres of

world class education is a central aim of all the leaders.

They may choose to pursue this vision in their own unique

way, depending on their unique context and stage of

development. There is a compelling need to make sure that

we are up to date with the latest research and thinking and

know the work of some of the most innovative and forward

thinking schools on the globe. The organisations and

resources below will be used to ensure we are genuinely a

Trust at the leading edge and thinking big.


Our Inspiration All schools within the Trust are members of

the national network of excellence called

‘Challenge Partners’. The Cornwall Hub is

based at the Leading Edge Central Office.

Sara Davey is a Senior Partner and Darren

Payne is the Hub Manager.

All the schools within the Trust and many

schools in the Teaching School have

significant expertise in this popular way of

learning. The MAT hopes to continue as a

beacon of excellence in this area and we are committed to

developing this project-based learning in our revised

curriculum within the new Ofsted framework. Engaging with

the community using best practice in real world learning is

the goal.

We are also working with a world renowned

Professor of Education called ‘Deborah Eyre’, to

develop the characteristics of world class schools

by using language and concepts to shift all students

to perform at the highest level. It promotes a

mindset with all to believe that all students are

capable of excellence.


The vision also speaks of our

commitment to develop global learners.

The aim is that all students and staff

within the Trust have international

opportunities to travel abroad each year

in a variety of ways. This may vary

considerably and will include professional

learning visits to other schools or

organisations and adventurous activities with students

including skiing, surfing, sailing, rowing and kayaking.

As well as visits and

trips, the aim will be to

develop a passion for

working positively

towards achieving the

UN Global Goals for

2030 by getting

involved in

community projects or writing curriculum modules.

Our Promise


The Leading Edge Promise to staff is that we have an

affirmative culture in all of our Academies. We will be looking

for ways of ensuring that all staff have a life-work balance

and that all our monitoring and accountability structures

move from a inspectorial model favoured over the last two

decades, to a more positive and non-judgmental model of

continuous improvement. This will involve us all changing

our language and thinking to a more positive and enriching

approach to leadership and management for all.

Our Staff Well Being Programme


We understand that staff give many hours to their work and

sometimes forget to refuel their own reserves. The Leading

Edge Academies Partnership would like to build a set of

opportunities to encourage staff to enjoy sport, music, health

and transport benefits by working together.

The aim will be to encourage a wide conversation in all staff

rooms and then for each Academy to identify a

representative to join a MAT-wide group to identify what

would be a useful and enjoyable way to spend our precious

downtime. Some ideas could include:

Friday evening (4pm-5pm) sessions for staff:

1) Staff tennis, football, badminton, golf or yoga sessions

2) Staff watersports sessions including gig rowing, sailing,

stand up paddle boarding, climbing, surfing, kayaking and

diving

3) Brew Sing events in a local pub for informal singing but it

could include a more formal choir

Occasional Evening Events:

1) Joint trips to music gigs, cinema visits or theatre trips.

Transport provided by Leading Edge minibuses

2) Informal meals with book clubs and film clubs

3) Joint spa visits to get treatments and relaxation activities

4) Curry and quiz nights for staff and families

Health Benefits


1) A Leading Edge Rewards card with free membership for

all employees at Fowey Sports Hub, Mounts Bay Sports

Hub and Five Islands Sports facilities. This includes free

use of the gym, sports hall, squash courts, football fields,

tennis courts and other indoor and outdoor facilities. This

would be available at evenings, weekends and during the

holidays with prior booking.

2) Free flu jabs and free private consultations with health

and well being professionals on request.

Transport Benefits

All staff would be encouraged to use ecologically friendly or

‘green’ forms of transport and each school site would cater

for the use of push bikes and electric bikes and cars by

providing charging stations on request. The MAT working

party for staff well-being could consider ideas such as

incentivising the reduction of single person car use by, for

example, giving free cinema tickets or Amazon vouchers for

every 10 trips completed without a car. Walking or jogging to

work may also be included if it is over a mile away. Car

sharing could be rewarded. Where there are multiple staff

using the same routes, minibuses may be used to pick up

from train stations. Ideas for future thinking like this would be

encouraged.

Food and Drink Benefits


All staff are entitled to free tea and coffee. If staff use the

food venues and sit with the students at lunchtime they will

be entitled to a free school meal. Professional development

events include free food and drink.

Our Professional

Learning Approaches The 21st Century models of CPD

are very different from the past.

There are now fewer approaches

that are hierarchical and more

personalised and informal

learning models being used.

Every member of staff linked to

teaching has a clear career route with

appropriate accreditation to go

alongside their pathway. The Teaching

School offers all qualifications from

NPQML to ITT. Staff who wish to go

from NPQSL to CEO awards need to

look at external providers either online or by providers within

the South West.

In addition to the formally taught professional development

courses outlined in the diagram above, there are numerous

other ways of collecting evidence and developing your CPD


portfolio. The recommended route for collecting the evidence

of your professional practice is via Basecamp and for the

Performance Management targets to be placed online after

a conversation with your line manager. This approach

enables all staff to locate their e-portfolio quickly and easily.

It is also easy to upload supporting evidence and add

reminders to ensure progress is on track.

There are different ways of categorising the variety of CPD

available from the Trust. The diagram overleaf outlines a

summary of improvement strategies. It also includes the use

of online/blended courses that we have signed up for, which


may be useful for people who find it easier to work form home

or in their own space and time.

The other types of CPD available, range from formal to

informal and all could provide evidence for your talent

development profile. The following list is not exhaustive but

outlines the range of possible experiences that could be

recorded, which can be categorised by time:

Minutes - Hours - Half Days/Days - Months - Half Term -

Quadmesters - Years

i.e TeachMeet sessions (2-3 minutes) and ITP half termly.


If you are planning to run a CPD session it may be worth

looking at the ‘Joyful Professional Learning’ iBooks from

Apple, as they are available free from the iBook store.

And Finally


The website will give you all the organisation details of the

Trust, including the Governance structures and policies,

which are being uploaded during the summer term ,as soon

as they are agreed. The website address is:

www.leadingedgeacademies.org

(not leap or co.uk)

http://leadingedgeacademies.org/

http://co.uk/


And the Central Team will be moving to the

leadingedgeacademies.org

email addresses next week.

http://leadingedgeacademies.org/

welcome guide for the leading edge staff team 20191) staff tennis, football, badminton, golf or yoga...

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